Aged-Care Professionals' and Health Care Professionals' Self-Reported Impact of Printed Educational Material on Clinical Practice.

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the printed educational material (PEM), the Residential Aged-Care (RAC) Communiqué, on the changing clinical practice of health and aged-care professionals.

METHODS

The RAC Communiqué is a PEM that contains case narratives from Coroners' investigations into potentially preventable deaths in nursing homes. A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted, using an anonymous electronic survey distributed to all subscribers of the RAC Communiqué. The questionnaire consisted of 40 questions in five sections, such as respondent characteristics, respondent preferences and reading behavior, respondent opinion about the RAC Communiqué content, and the mode of its delivery, impact of the RAC Communiqué, and the details of changes in professional practice.

RESULTS

The response rate was 58.3% (367/630). Respondents were mostly women aged 45 years and older (n = 319, 86.9%) with more than 10 years of experience (n = 241, 65.7%) in management (n = 171, 46.6%) or nursing (n = 65, 17.7%). Of the 367 respondents, 204 (55.6%) reported changing their practice. Multivariate analysis revealed that women (odds ratio [OR] = 2.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01-4.35) aged between 45 and 54 (OR = 2.06, CI = 1.13-3.75), who read most of the RAC Communiqué (OR = 2.77, CI = 1.34-5.72) and were subscribed for more than 1 year (OR = 3.58, CI = 1.61-7.95) were significantly associated with practice change.

DISCUSSION

More than half of the survey respondents who read the RAC Communiqué self-reported a change in practice highlighting its impact and efficacy as PEM.